Nicholls: Experience vital in Gold Cup

PAUL NICHOLLS is banking on Kauto Star and Denman’s experience to repel the young pretenders in what he believes is a wide-open totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Nicholls’ pair have dominated jumps racing since 2007 and it was not until Imperial Commander’s interruption last year that the elite prize had left his Somerset stables.

Kauto Star and Denman are now both 11 and have rivals queuing up behind, with the former finally losing his King George VI Chase crown to Long Run and the latter having been given a breathing operation after finishing third on his only start this term in the Hennessy Gold Cup.